E.B. School officials anticipate a perfect budget storm

Rising costs combined with the uncertainty of state funding have school officials referring to the fiscal 2009 budget as “the perfect storm” that could result in “severe cuts.”

For the upcoming year all departments have been instructed to prepare budgets that reflect a 3 percent increase.

For the School Department, this equates to an increase of $516,262 over this year's budget of $17.2 million.

School officials, however, are saying the current situation leaves the schools with a need for an additional $824,893.

During a presentation at Thursday's School Committee meeting, Beth Hayes, School Committee secretary and chairwoman of the budget subcommittee, outlined the budget needs.

A key issue for the district for fiscal 2009 is that the new busing contract calls for a 50 percent increase, or another $396,412.

Hayes said Bridgewater-Raynham District has finalized its new busing contract and some bus runs sustained a 60 percent cost increase.

Utility costs are projected to increase by $112,344, based on the rising costs of gas and oil, and special education costs are being forecast to increase by $316,137.

These factors, combined with preliminary reports that the state will have a difficult year has created “the perfect storm,” that school officials say “does not provide for an educationally sound budget and will result in severe cuts.”

At this time, no cuts have been made or identified, but school officials are expressing concern.

“We're basically dismantling programs put into place. We are moving the district forward with zero percent,” said School Committee Chairwoman Lisa Forbes.

“We're looking at cuts to balance this budget. There are some real tough choices to make,” said member Robert Condon.

“The cuts this year are on top of years of cuts. There's nowhere left to go. It's all bad,” said committee member Nancy Smith.

Committee Vice Chairman Thomas Hamilton stressed that it is the obligation of the committee to create a budget that doesn't include drastic cuts.

“I challenge all of us to come up with something we can present to the community. Our budget is based on need, not dollars and cents,” he said.

Martin Crowley of the Finance Committee attended the meeting explaining that over the years, the rate of growth, expenses, health insurance have been in the “double digits every year” while revenue is not.

Crowley also said there will be more information available and ample time to discuss the situation.

The committee encourages parents to get involved in the budget process.

Also at the meeting, Police Chief John Cowan, officer Douglass Carey and high school Principal Paul Vieira told the committee there will be canine searches before the end of the year.

Vieira said the last time a canine search had been performed at the school was in 1998 and resuming them is a “proactive approach, not reactive.”

Cowan said that during a search the school goes into a mode similar to a lockdown. He said students leave the classroom during the search and are never in contact with the dogs.

Cowan said the search takes less than an hour and about six to eight dogs will be used.

He said the dogs are trained to sniff out drugs that include heroin, marijuana, cocaine and certain pills.